Untitled Sermon (19)

Every year I have a little debate in my own soul, sometimes includes my wife, and sometimes other Pastors, and the debate is about whether or not to preach a Mother’s Day sermon on Mother’s Day.

I think that you could imagine how that debate goes. Some would say, “Mothers are easily forgotten, culturally demeaned, and under-appreciated by their husbands, their kids, their churches, and even their fellow women. Besides that the Bible values mothers. It celebrates mothers in , , , , and here in mothers are valued! So why not, why not trumpet the beautiful vision of motherhood that the Bible gives us and show its beauty in the midst of a world that derides femininity and motherhood.” We should preach Mother’s day sermons on Mother’s day, and a big part of my soul says, “Amen”

But there is another side to that debate. Mother’s day is a hard for many women. It is one of the top two days in the year where I know women at many Churches struggle with even going to Church. Women who have aborted children, or are experiencing infertility, or who have lost a child to waywardness or death, or who are feeling their biological clock is going to run out by the time they get married, if they ever get married. These women, these wives, and their husbands can feel guilt, grief, and shame on mother’s day. For many people mother’s day is the one day they do not want to go to church and the definitely do not want to hear a mother’s day sermon. So why should we make some Hallmark Holiday that the Bible does not even talk about a day of suffering for some of the sisters, we should not preach mother’s day sermons on mother’s day, and to that a big part of my soul says, “Amen!”

Anyway, I have this debate every year. Some years the Mother’s day sermon wins. Other years the no Mother’s day sermon wins the day. This year, I want to preach a Mother’s Day sermon on Mother’s day and I want to do it for three reasons. First, we are always in desperate need of preaching that addresses men and women specifically in their God ordained roles. Whenever a man becomes an Elder at Immanuel we give him a lengthy theological and practical list of questions and one of those questions is what doctrines do you believe need special emphasis in our day? If I were that question today I would quickly and confidently say, the doctrine of man and specifically man as males and females who are made equal with different God given gift and roles in marriage in the Church. This truth needs special emphasis in our chauvinistic, feministic, sexually hedonistic, anti authoritarian, gender confused culture needs to think biblically, wisely and well about men and women. We have a desperate need for preaching that addresses men and women in their God given roles. Second, I believe that our denomination the Southern Baptist Convention is shying away from God’s good order in the Church for men and women. I will show you what I mean by that shortly, for now I will say that I see a troubling in our own denomination of Churches. Thirdly, a Church with a clear understanding of the roles God has given to men and women is the best place for men, women, wives and mothers to thrive. A biblical understanding of the place of women and men in the life of the local Church is good for all of God’s children. Our heavenly father made us, designed us, and saves us and knows what is best for us. A Biblical understanding of motherhood is not only good for your life, we will see in our last verse that embracing God’s vision for motherhood is eternally good for your soul. Let’s t

then

I / desire that - the men /should pray

/in place /lifting (holy) hands

/every /without anger or quarrelling

also

likewise

likewise

that women / should adorn themselves

/in (respectable) apparrel

/with modesty and self control

/not braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire

but with

What /is /proper

/for women

/who profess godliness

-with good works ()

(you) let learn / a woman

/quietly

/with all submissiveneness

I / do not permit - to teach or exercise authority

/a woman /over a man

rather

she is to remain quiet

For Adam / was formed first,

/then Eve

And Adam was not deceived

/but the woman was deceived

and became a transgressor

Yet, she will be saved through childbearing - if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self control.

Toxic Masculinity / - Not Christianity

Mansplaining - No God Splaining

The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Pastoral Epistles Prayer for All Urged and Grounded in the Existence of One God and One Mediator: 2:1–8

The argument of this section is tightly knit and provides the basis for Paul’s appeal. He urges prayers for all kinds of individuals (ὑπὲρ πάντων ἀνθρώπων, v. 1), specifically those in authority (v. 2a), with a view to civil peace (v. 2b), in which godly living may flourish (v. 2c). The grounds for such prayer is that it is good and acceptable to God (v. 3), and particularly so as we contemplate him as the Savior who desires all sorts of people to be saved (v. 4). That God would have all sorts of people be saved is a necessary corollary of the truth of monotheism and of the provision of only one mediator, the man Christ Jesus (v. 5), and of the extent of the provision of the mediator’s ransom, which is for all sorts of people (v. 6). Paul’s own career in proclaiming this gospel to Gentiles (not just to Jews) bears out that the “all” (πάντες, vv. 1, 4, 6) encompasses all sorts of people (v. 7). Since all these things are true, people in every place should pray with a godliness in accord with such a gospel (v. 8).

Knight - Paul may be calling for prayer first, or of first importance ( a little stronger)

Prayer words are synonyms for emphasis

The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Pastoral Epistles Prayer for All Urged and Grounded in the Existence of One God and One Mediator: 2:1–8

In summary, these four terms delineate aspects of what should mark prayers: δεήσεις, making requests for specific needs; προσευχάς, bringing those in view before God; ἐντεύξεις, appealing boldly on their behalf; and εὐχαριστίας, thankfulness for them. That the four words are plural points to more than one expression of prayer and suggests the involvement of a number of those in the congregation, as does plural τοὺς ἄνδρας in v. 8.

The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Pastoral Epistles Prayer for All Urged and Grounded in the Existence of One God and One Mediator: 2:1–8

βούλομαι (followed here and in 5:14; Tit. 3:8; Phil. 1:12; and Jude 5 by accusative plus infinitive) expresses an apostolic demand in the language of personal desire (“I want”; so NASB and NIV; RSV and NEB use equally strong “I desire”; note that the other Pauline uses of this verb denote the same strong sense: so BAGD; D. Müller, NIDNTT III, 1015–17; particularly G. Schrenk, TDNT I, 630–32, who relates the usage to Hellenistic Judaism, especially the LXX and Josephus, of the disposition of the royal will or of the lawgiver, and indicates that it refers here to “ordering by apostolic authority”). προσεύχεσχαι is used with the general meaning “to pray” and encapsulates the concern of v. 1.

The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Pastoral Epistles Prayer for All Urged and Grounded in the Existence of One God and One Mediator: 2:1–8

χείρ is used with ἐπαίρω only here in the NT, even though it is also used with some thirteen other verbs in the NT and other early Christian literature (see BAGD s.v. 1 [880]). Raising of hands in prayer is known in the OT (Ex. 9:29; 17:11, 12; 1 Ki. 8:22, 54; Neh. 8:6; Pss. 28:2; 63:4; 141:2; 143:6; Is. 1:15; La. 2:19; 3:41; Hab. 3:10) and in Jewish (e.g., 2 Maccabees 3:20; 14:34; cf. Spicq; Str-B II, 26) and Gentile literature (cf. Wetstein; Wohlenberg; Deissmann, Light, 414ff.; Spicq), as well as among Christians (in catacomb illustrations and in 1 Clement 29; Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.7; Tertullian, Apol. 30). Paul may want to emphasize here the posture or gesture as appropriate to the seriousness and urgency of prayer in general and prayer for all people and authorities in particular and as providing for a unity of body and mind in prayer (the body joining with the voice and heart in being lifted up to God). But this does not seem to be the focus of this passage (cf. the full list of various biblical prayer postures in Hendriksen). The reference to “hands” seems to be introduced to serve as a vehicle for conveying his concern for holiness (ὁσίους χεῖρας, as in many of the OT references), which is then further emphasized by the following phrase (χωρὶς κτλ.).

We should raise our hands in prayer - some men here are probably more concerned that women listen to God’s call regarding how they dress than they are concerned with getting themselves to listen to how they should worship.

Good and bad reasons for prayer - One bad reason is broken relationships - Active in the Church or lingering in the home.

Anger not associated with one race but with all men.

The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Pastoral Epistles Instructions for Women: 2:9–15

The argument is as follows: Paul enjoins modesty and discretion for women’s apparel (v. 9a), indicates what should not characterize women’s lives (v. 9b), and returns to the spiritual adornment, “good works,” that befits their profession (v. 10). Next, he says that women are to learn, but, leading up to another prohibition, he emphasizes that their learning must be characterized by quietness and submission (v. 11). Specifically, he orders that women may not teach or exercise authority over men in the Christian community and its gatherings (v. 12). As grounds for this insistence, he appeals to the authority relationship established between man and woman in the representative man and woman, Adam and Eve, by means of the order of their creation (v. 13). This creation order is substantiated, or illustrated, by the great tragedy of the fall, when the leadership roles were reversed (v. 14). In conclusion Paul reminds women of God’s great promise to the woman (Gn. 3:15) that she would be saved by means of her seed if she responds to that seed in faith, love, and sanctity, with submission to God’s creation order, i.e., with self-restraint (v. 15).

The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Pastoral Epistles Adornment and Good Works: 2:9–10

Just as Christian men needed to be warned that their interest in vigor and discussion should not produce strife and dissension (v. 8), so Christian women needed to be warned that their interest in beauty and adornment should not produce immodesty and indiscretion.

The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Pastoral Epistles Adornment and Good Works: 2:9–10

Paul is advocating not just modesty in dress, but also that more time and energy be spent on spiritual adornment.